Telecom strike heads into day two

August 11, 2009
Media Release

Telecom strike heads into day two

Nine hundred Telecom lines engineers are continuing nationwide strike action today.

The action will include a mass protest in Auckland outside Telecom house at 10am this morning.

The strike action, which has already led to delays in fault repairs and new connections, comes as hundreds of engineers face redundancy and attempts by Telecom contractor Visionstream to force them into a dependant contractor model of work – a move that would cost them up to $60,000 up front and significantly reduce their incomes.

EPMU national industry organiser Joe Gallagher says strike action and disruption will continue as long as Telecom and Visionstream refuse to negotiate a collective agreement.

“The clock is ticking on this dispute because Visionstream needs our members to come across within the next six weeks or there will be nobody to maintain the network and our members won’t budge until the dependant contractor model is discarded.

“Telecom are betting that they can force a massive reduction of income on our members but they’ve bet wrong and that will mean a huge cost to the network and to their customers. It’s cowboy behaviour.

“We’ve told Telecom and Visionstream that we are willing to negotiate a fair deal for our members but so far they’ve refused to come to the table and would rather carry on with a scheme that shows a reckless disregard for the wellbeing of our members and the integrity of their business.”

A recent report shows the contract offered by Visionstream could reduce members’ income by 50- 66%.

A legal analysis of the contract commissioned by the EPMU also shows dependant contractors would have no guaranteed minimum incomes, would be exposed to penalty fines without proper recourse and would be forced to do a significant amount of work for which no remuneration is offered.

This analysis can be found at: http://www.epmu.org.nz/assets/Electrocomms/PETER-CASTLE-OPINION.pdf

ENDS

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